Battle of Camp Hill
in Birmingham, United KingdomCategory: Attraction
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191 Bradford St, Birmingham B12 0JD, UK Print route »
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The Battle of Camp Hill (or the Battle of Birmingham) took place in and around Camp Hill, during the First English Civil War, on Easter Monday, 3 April 1643, when a company of Parliamentarians from the Lichfield garrison with the support of some of the local townsmen, in all about 300 men, attempted to stop a detachment of Royalists, of about 1,200 cavalry and 200 foot men, under the command of Prince Rupert from passing through the unfortified parliamentary town of Birmingham.The Parliamentarians put up a surprisingly stout resistance, and according to the Royalists shot at them from houses as they drove the small Parliamentary force from the town and back towards Lichfield from whence they came. To suppress the musket fire, the Royalists torched the houses from which the shooting was thought to come. After the battle the Royalists spent the rest of the day in the town during which time they pillaged it. The next morning after the main body of the Royalist force had left town, many more houses were put to the torch. While pillaging and firing an unfortified town in retaliation for resistance was common at that time on Continental Europe it was not usual in England and this handed the Parliamentary side a propaganda weapon which they used to disparage the Royalists.
